Daughters 2004 1.4 petrol spat its water out today and overheated causing the engine to cut out,,,

AA Man says the ECU cuts the engine to prevent damage and he filled it with water and followed the daughter home..

He has said either the water pump or what he called the Thermostat block housing which is apparently under a manifold is to blame and though its fine to drive for a short distance the car need sorting.

Can anyone shed a bit of light on thisThermostat block housing.. AA man said the car needs to be up on a ramp to gain access to it.. I thought they were usually found on the top of engines ? Car is ome distance from where I live so I havent seen it yet..

The water pump will tend to leak coolant out of a weep hole if it's on its way out, I guess the AA bloke didn't take the liberty of feeling the top and bottom rad hoses? They would normally indicate a poorly thermostat, one would have been hot and the other cold, it could be a blocked rad? a common ford thing Is for the coolant tank lid to lose interest and not hold its pressure, there are umpteen things that could be to blame, possible head/gasket issues. If the leak was at the thermostat housing I would have thought there would be some sort of visible evidence and he would be unable to refill the system properly if it was gone to that extent, I know the 1.4 water pump isn't cam driven so it is visible to basic Inspection, get a proper mechanic to look at it and see where it goes.
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Depending on mileage I would recommend a new waterpump as they fail after many miles, and a thermostat will be a good swap when that's being done. As Nathan said check the rad hoses to check the thermostat. If it does overheat again, switch the heater on. Head gaskets are rare, girlfriend's dad is a mechanic and loves the Sigma Engine, and in the 18 years they've been around he has never seen one throw a HG... Not even abused ones.

Had all the parts above replaced and the damn thing did it again.. Turns out the head is shot which effectively makes for an uneconomic repair so the car is to be scrapped... 80.000 miles and a write off... Mmmmm

Either manufacturing defect or it got hot a lot in the past warping the head. If it's in good shape would an Engine swap do? But that isn't really economically sensible repair... Unless she loves the car.

We in the last month had replaced the thermostat and its housing.. The plugs leads air filter coil pack and Lamda sensors. The head had to come off due to a spark plug corroding/binding in.

The car then overheated due to the pipe that goes from the expansion tank round to the right hand side of the engine.. I believe its a return pipe.. Pipe was replaced but the car boiled again and was recovered by the AA to the garage who said the head gasket had gone..

Upon removal it was sent once again to the engineers for skimming if it was possible. Remember the head was skimmed only two weeks ago. But the call came back saying due to overheating the head is cracked and unrepairable it was not the gasket as we thought..

Car is a 2004 1.4 petrol with 80.000 miles in very good condition and worth I would guess 1500 quid but a new head is 1530+VAT...

Did they only skim head first time an not pressure test it u must be so angry that's a nightmare from hell

Well they say it was tested before the skim but I cant really say.. Shame such a nice wee car is getting scrapped but we have lost complete confidence in it so throwing more coin at it is just good money after bad...

That's very unlucky I doubt they even skimmed it first time con men lesson to be learned check ur oil an water at least once every two week an never keep drivin if car overheats I know it's last thing u wanna hear but so many problems could be avoid if carry out routine checks

Mick I agree with you but it was a pipe that simply gave way that resulted in the second overheating incident.

Daughter was on the motorway and decided to try and make it to a very nearby services which was by far the safest option and one I support as her safety comes way in front of a car... This I believe was the cause of the cracked head. I could of course argue with the garage but it would be a fruitless argument and of course one I could not prove even if I suspected they had done a bad job which in fact I don't....

Oh I understand completely if u stuck on a road with no we're stop ur screwed but they should have checked condition of all hoses after first time overheated I say there was a bulge in the pipe now we both know they won't take the blame but best advice don't use that garage again